Friday, August 9, 2024

[GLOG] Chain Binder

Chain Binder

Starting Equipment: ceremonial silver collar, one sanctified tool, hard hat, work clothes and an incomplete work order

Starting Skill: 1} Construction, 2) Labour Relations or 3) Siege Engineering

+1 Sanctified Tool per Template
A. Chained, Work Orders
B. Commune
C. Sanctified
D. Apprentices
Δ. Demon, Double Devil

Chained: You have a ceremonial silver collar around your neck, attached to twenty feet of incorporeal and invisible silver chain. This chain attaches to a similarly incorporeal and invisible Mockery Devil. The Devil has twenty strength, can grasp both corporeal and incorporeal things and can perfectly mimic any action you mime it doing. The Devil is smarter than you are but otherwise has the statistics of a big gorilla.

The Devil is bound. It may only take actions that you mime it doing. These happen right before the start of your next turn. If you mime the Devil picking something up, it will pick it up and move it around however you mime it moving it. If you punch someone, the Devil will punch that person too (for 2d6+Str), if they haven't moved out of the way by the start of your next turn. The Devil may not do anything that you cannot mime it doing.

Work Orders: Officially, you are supposed to be supervising your Devil as it serves mankind via manual labour. The Devil is strong and cannot be crushed by falling blocks of marble, so it makes sense (according to the Church) to make it do heavy lifting on construction sites and dig irrigation canals and so forth. As part of its binding, your Devil is forbidden from wielding weapons and must get permission from the Church to carry tools.

If you visit any church you can ask for a list of nearby projects that your Devil could work on. You can also propose your own tasks, subject to the Church official agreeing that it sounds like a honest uplifting heavy labour for your Devil. They will take your current set of Sanctified Tools and issue you a set of replacements suited to whatever task(s) you agreed to make it perform. If you don't actually do the work you agreed to, you will get lectured the next time you visit that particular church.

The Church will not sanctify weapons for your Devil, but might be convinced to sanctify a big axe if you can convince them that you need to chop down big trees. Weapons do not increase the damage done by the Devil, but do let you wield a matching weapon and still have it copy you. The Church can re-summon your devil if it gets banished, but not if it escapes. You will get lectured if you let your Devil get banished without a very good excuse.

Commune: You have learned how to let your Devil speak. This is not strictly sanctioned, so you shouldn't do it in front of priests you don't trust. It turns out that Mockery Devils are good listeners, but get bored of being used as arcane construction equipment. Your Devil speaks three languages you don't and can tell you about things it sees, including magic, holiness and invisible things. As the name suggests, Mockery Devils can perfectly mimic any voice they have ever heard.

Sanctified: You have seen the tool sanctification ritual enough times that you know all the words. You can de-sanctify one item in order to re-sanctify another item in an hour long ritual, whenever you want. If you are not a priest, this is extremely illegal. Even if you are a priest, you're really not supposed to be approving your own requests like this. But you could do it

If you got a good look at the ritual for Devil summoning, you could figure out how to do that too. It wouldn't even have to be a Mockery Devil, necessarily, if you learn the True Name for something else.

Unrelatedly, you learn that sanctified adamantine can break incorporeal Devil chains and that you are expressly forbidden from ever sanctifying anything made of adamantine. But again, it's not like the Church could stop you, if you keep it secret.

Apprentices: If you have not been ex-communicated from the Church by this point, you will be sent 1d4 apprentices each season until you have as many apprentices as you have levels. Half of them are bright-eyed and naive acolytes while the other half are seasoned construction workers. You are expected to serve as a good role model to them and not get them killed. You can nominate one of them to take your place if you die, immediately promoting them to being a 2nd level Chain Binder and your new player character.

If you HAVE been ex-communicated, you still get a similar number of naive acolytes and seasoned construction workers following you around, but its less of an apprenticeship and more of a 'Rogue Demon Cult' according to official sources. The robes are different. You can still nominate one of them to inherit your Demon and/or kidnapped loyalist Devil, with the usual benefits.

Demon: Gain this template if you break your Devil's chains but it stays loyal to you instead of running off back to either Hell or snitching on you to Church. Your Devil (now a Demon) can move as far away from you as it wants and still mimic you perfectly. But you are also going to get excommunicated the second anyone finds out that you've done this, with hunters sent to arrest you both.

If it turns out that your Devil is a loyalist and was just trying to bait you into sinning in order to test your faith, you still get the benefits of this template. The Devil has to mimic your actions, regardless of what it thinks of you. But the vibes are very different. You still get hunted by the Church over it.

Double Devil: Gain this template if you acquire a second Mockery Devil somehow. You now have an extra Devil. It also mimics every action you mime, but against a different target. You can keep getting this template if you keep getting more Mockery Devils, but eventually the Church is going to start asking some pointed questions about how this keeps happening and when you plan on returning them. Assuming you haven't already been excommunicated.

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